We transformed the Christmas tradition of wearing ugly sweaters into a smart fundraiser. We created and designed the Really Ugly Sweater. The first ugly Christmas sweater that showed a really ugly scene. The normally oh-so-peaceful nativity scene became a tent in a refugee camp and jingle bells became jingle bombs.

A limited edition of 300 Really Ugly Sweaters was made and sold online in a dedicated webshop, at € 55 retail price. The sweaters quickly became a collector’s item while raising funds - and awareness - for SOS Children’s Villages. Turning craft into actual communication, proud owners of the Really Ugly Sweater not only donated to charity, they also spread its ugly story by wearing it at Christmas dinners and posting it on social media.

To support and launch the campaign, we re-imagined the sweater design into smart, animated and social content to encourage Christmas lovers everywhere to buy their very own Really Ugly Sweater and ultimately raise awareness and funds for the humanitarian work SOS Children’s Villages does in war struck Syria, while shedding a light on the other side of the holidays.

A campaign designed towards wearing and sharing was ultimately carried out by its own buyers and social media influencers.

The sweaters were sold out within a week, raising € 10,200. All the major news websites like VRT NWS, HLN, De Morgen and pub.be picked up the campaign, Belgium’s most popular Instagrammers like: Sean Dhondt (singer and TV host), An Lemmens (TV personality), Triggerfinger (music band) and Bram Willems (radio host) posted selfies wearing the ugly sweater and Studio Brussel, one of Belgium’s biggest radio stations, invited us to tell our story on air. We appeared on national TV when we handed over the € 10,200 of proceeds of the ugly sweaters. Our Really Ugly Sweater generated massive media coverage, incredible word of mouth from countless supporters and an impressive spike in awareness for SOS Children’s Villages and its projects in Aleppo and Tartus.